In spring 2007, the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (2007) launched a new policy with the goal of rewarding colleges for improving student achievement. Under this new policy, called the Student Achievement Initiative, colleges will receive financial rewards for increasing the rate at which students attain key “achievement points” in four categories: 1) achieving learning gains in adult basic skills and pre-college remedial courses; 2) completing a college-level math course; 3) earning college credits; and 4) completing a certificate, a degree, or apprenticeship training. The State Board designated the 2007-08 academic year as a “learning year” in which colleges were expected to organize teams to examine achievement point data provided by the State Board and plan ways to increase rates of achievement point attainment by their students. The Community College Research Center (CCRC) is evaluating the initiative under the direction of Davis Jenkins, Senior Research Associate. The evaluation has two major components: 1) a field study of the 2007-08 learning year that examines the extent of awareness and understanding of the initiative among college personnel, the initial responses to it by the colleges, and promising developments and potential barriers to the further development of the initiative; and 2) an impact study to be conducted over a five year period. Funding for this work was provided by College Spark Washington, by the Ford Foundation as part of the Bridges to Opportunity initiative and by Lumina Foundation for Education as part of Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count.